


starcrossed

by tainted-destinies (khrysallis)



Category: Super Junior
Genre: Angst, Drama, M/M, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-19
Updated: 2015-04-19
Packaged: 2018-03-24 18:52:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3780562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/khrysallis/pseuds/tainted-destinies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In this short life, people would always enter and leave. But who would be the one to leave, and who would be the one to stay?</p>
            </blockquote>





	starcrossed

He attempted to breathe. A wince flashed across his face when the air was trapped in his throat, suffocating him just like his memories.  
  
Holding onto the side of the table for support, he clutched his chest in agony. He fought against the urge to cry. Doing his best to fight back the proof of his weakness. Trying hard to ignore the insurmountable amount of regret that washed over him, but to no avail.  
  
And just like any other day where this familiar feeling would start to grapple him, he began to wonder whether things would be different if he treaded down another path.

-  
-  
-  
-

  
Spring. The season which signifies the end of several cold, bleak months. It was the start of all things new. New hope. New beginnings.  
  
He scoffed at the ridiculousness of it, unceremoniously chucking the book he was reading across the lawn. He would never believe in that nonsense. For him, spring was as dark as winter could get, perhaps even worse. Many memories in which he desperately sought to be erased happened then.  
  
His attention was diverted when the telltale aroma of his previously discarded leather-bound book – now interlaced with the smell of damp grass – wafted in his nose. Receiving it begrudgingly, he looked up and muttered his thanks at the man whom had just joined him by the fountain located in the middle of the garden.  
  
“You should not do that to your books, Kyuhyun. They are meant to be treated with respect,” the taller of the pair mused, taking a seat next to the man on the stone bench.  
  
“Under normal circumstances, I would treat my books with extra care, but I am just not in the best of moods today,” he commented bluntly, before taking a not-so-discreet glance at the fabric which was peeping out from beneath the other man’s sleek, black riding coat. “Really, Siwon hyung? Red, chequered riding pants?” he pointed out sarcastically, thinking that it was too flashy even for the likes of the older man.  
  
He also thought that the furry hat was a little too over the top, but nonetheless kept silent about it.  
  
“No such comments from you, boy.” Siwon shot back half-heartedly, though a smile still graced his lips. “Why do you seem to be on the edge today, though? Did something happen during my horse-riding exercise?”  
  
No other words were said as the younger man stood up abruptly. Siwon noticed a second too late about the anger that was emanating off of the former. He could only watch helplessly as Kyuhyun marched back in the direction of the mansion, knowing full well that he would not be seeing him for the next few days.   
  


.｡.:*☆*:.｡.:*☆*:.｡.

  
“How long do you plan on isolating yourself in your room?” A voice came from the doorway, bringing Kyuhyun’s attention to the person who had just walked in. He rolled his eyes and returned his focus on the book that lay open on his lap.  
  
A sigh, then the mattress of the four-poster bed was compressed. The boy who was clad in a white shirt and red pair of pants, along with a silk scarf tied neatly around his neck looked up with a dark expression. He wasn’t the least bit pleased at the intrusion, especially when the other person did not even bother knocking on the door.  
  
“What do you want with me now, hyung?” Kyuhyun snapped irately.  
  
Siwon ignored his question, opting to hold his gaze instead. “You are always acting like this. Ignoring everyone else and keeping yourself in the room for days when you do not like something that was said. Pushing everyone out of your own world. It has been  _years_ , Kyuhyun. Are you not sick of living in such a manner?”  
  
“What do you know about me? What do you understand about how I feel?” came the retort, and within seconds, Kyuhyun was headed towards the door again.  
  
Nevertheless, Siwon was quick to say something else before the younger one disappeared from view. Something that he knew was effective in making Kyuhyun freeze in his steps. “I would not know if you do not let me in.”  
  
The younger man whipped around to cast a glare at Siwon’s direction. However, before he could say anything about the remark, another sigh escaped Siwon’s lips. “That is not the main reason why I am here, Kyuhyun. We are all wanted downstairs. Someone new would be joining us today.”  
  
Kyuhyun walked out of the room he had imprisoned himself within for the past few days without hesitation, despite the fact that he was tempted to ignore the order. The consequences were something that he dreaded.  
  
He did not realise that this little meeting would change his life, possibly forever.   
  


.｡.:*☆*:.｡.:*☆*:.｡.

  
“I believe you have your own room to return to,” he raised an eyebrow at the man who had casually strolled into his private space. The latter did not seem to have heard him, however, because he proceeded to make himself comfortable on the armchair next to the window.  
  
Kyuhyun rolled his eyes and returned to the literary book in his hand when the other man remained silent and gazed into the scenery in the distance. As long as he was not disturbed, Kyuhyun did not really mind anyone staying in his room.  
  
Nevertheless, it didn’t seem as though the man had picked up on the silent hint, for he spoke up moments later. “Say, Kyu…”  
  
“It’s Kyuhyun,” he grounded out, feeling slightly irked that the other person was trying to use pet names on him. It hasn’t even been a long time since they were acquainted with each other.  
  
“If that is what you want,  _Kyuhyun_ ,” the man in a sleek black coat thrown around his shoulders amended himself. “Do you not feel bored staying cooped up in here for the entire day?”  
  
“Funny you should ask. I am not the one who has to disturb another person’s peace to keep myself entertained, Sungmin,” Kyuhyun replied distractedly, still fully absorbed with the poem he was reading.  
  
“That’s Sungmin _hyung_  for you. Stop removing the suffix as you please,” Sungmin growled in response.  
  
A minute of tense silence ensued as they stared at the other. Yet another minute passed by before both their lips quivered, and they started to laugh at the situation.  
  
“Do you really not have anything else to do in this house?” Kyuhyun finally spoke up again when he managed to compose himself, this time behaving less uptight than before. He even snapped his book shut and placed it beside his pillow. He felt oddly relaxed after laughing along with Sungmin; it was something that he was close to forgetting he possessed.  
  
“If there  _was_  something to keep me occupied, do you think I would be seated here instead of doing something else?” the older man pointed out. Kyuhyun merely nodded thoughtfully. “Where are the rest of them, anyway? I remember seeing five other boys the other day,” Sungmin added again, casting a questioning look in the younger male’s direction.  
  
Kyuhyun shrugged. “They are all preoccupied with their own activities outside the mansion, I suppose.”  
  
“They can walk around freely in town?” Sungmin asked, evidently surprised by the information. He specifically remembered being told that he was not allowed to walk out of the gates without being escorted by the servants.  
  
“They can come and go as they please,” Kyuhyun corrected him as he walked towards the window. A small but unmistakable sigh escaped his lips, and he shoved a hand into his pocket as he gazed out of the glass panes.  
  
He doesn’t even remember how long it has been since he had truly stepped out of these compounds.  
  
Sungmin apparently caught on to the hidden meaning behind Kyuhyun’s words. “But why can’t we do the same?”  
  
“That is where the difference comes in, hyung. You are a newcomer,” came the blunt reply, but it tickled Sungmin’s curiosity even more. It didn’t quite made sense to him why Kyuhyun should remain shut up in the house. He was sure that the boy had been at the mansion for at least a year prior to his arrival.  
  
“What about you? I presume that you are not new around here,” he said, considering how Kyuhyun knew his way around the mansion as though it was second nature.  
  
“They know that if I am allowed to leave, I would disappear from their sights immediately,” Kyuhyun answered seriously, turning on his heels and left for another part of the mansion without giving Sungmin the opportunity to clarify his statement.   
  


.｡.:*☆*:.｡.:*☆*:.｡.

  
“You and Sungmin hyung seem to have become really close friends,” Siwon commented one day over dinner. They were the only ones gathered in the dining area, as the rest of the group were still out of the mansion, and Sungmin had requested for an early dinner because he wasn’t feeling well.  
  
It had been two months since the oldest man out of the group had entered the household. Siwon had noticed how Kyuhyun would hardly be seen without Sungmin around him. The scene was something that was rare before the latter’s appearance. Everyone knew that Kyuhyun did not like having company, and would try their best to steer clear of the second youngest. No one wanted his gloomy mood to affect them.  
  
Siwon was the only person who still tried to get into Kyuhyun’s world.  
  
“Not really,” the younger man replied disinterestedly, carefully slicing the piece of steak on his plate. “He’s the one who keeps on pestering me every chance he gets. I could not shake him off. You should know how persistent he is.”  
  
Indeed, Siwon had encountered a fuming Kyuhyun storming away from Sungmin more often than he would have liked. It baffled him how Sungmin would stubbornly talk to the younger man every single passing day, the smile never faltering despite the cold shoulder Kyuhyun gave him.  
  
However, he did not fail to notice how Kyuhyun slowly allowed Sungmin into his life. It was the second time he ever saw him lowering his defences. The change was subtle, but still there. The boy talked much more than he usually would, and Siwon also noted how he would smile more often.  
  
Siwon didn’t want to accept the fact that Sungmin exerted that effect on him.   
  


.｡.:*☆*:.｡.:*☆*:.｡.

  
“Why do you always seem to be so troubled?” Sungmin randomly asked one day. They were lounging around in Kyuhyun’s room as always, allowing the silence to sink in for a moment until either of them had something in mind that they wanted to talk about.  
  
The younger man looked up at the other with a frown. “And how, may I ask, do you know that I am unhappy?” he retorted.  
  
“You give off that vibe,” Sungmin responded distractedly, glancing at the owner of the room for a brief moment before setting his sights on the scenery outside. “Even if you are smiling, it is not sincere. Your laughter does not truly reflect what you really feel within either.”  
  
A disbelieving snort came from Kyuhyun at that. “Then are  _you_  contented with your life?”  
  
“Why should I not be happy with it? I have been given the opportunity to see the world in a different perspective. I have the chance to pursue something which I could not even dream of when I was in my old life,” he said, a somewhat pensive smile playing on his lips. “Living under the wings of an aristocrat isn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”  
  
“You seem to have forgotten the fact that we are no more than some sort of collector’s item for the man. We are merely living objects with good looks that have been scavenged all over the country,” the younger man pointed out, voice thick with resentment. It suddenly became clear to Sungmin that not everyone in this household was contented with such an arrangement, especially not Kyuhyun.  
  
“Are you not glad that you were given a second chance to live?”  
  
“Were you one of those children who have been abandoned and had to live on the streets?” Kyuhyun ignored Sungmin’s question and threw a completely different query at him.  
  
The latter frowned for a brief moment, before slowly nodding in response. “I don’t even remember who my parents were, Kyuhyun. I have been living on the streets for years, having to struggle just to get through one day before he found me. Does everyone not have the same background in this mansion?”  
  
“Everyone who was found after me, yes. But I was forcefully pried away from my parents, hyung. Do you think you would have liked that?”  
  
Sungmin momentarily froze at Kyuhyun’s words. At that particular moment, he knew that the discussion was effectively over for the day.   
  


.｡.:*☆*:.｡.:*☆*:.｡.

  
_A pained groan escaped from the child’s mouth when he had accidentally crashed into something while running excitedly across the street. The blood was completely drained from his face when he looked up, realising that he had run into a noble. Although he was not schooled and had never seen a person from the higher cast of the society, he knew that much. The warm, expensive-looking cloak and pressed suit beneath it was more than enough proof of it.  
  
“I–I am terribly sorry, s-sir! I… I did not mean to get into your path…!” he muttered in a shaken manner, deathly afraid that he would be slapped right across the cheek for his insolence. He did not have to be told to know that peasants should never touch a member of the nobility.  
  
The child flinched and took a step backwards when the man in a top hat lowered himself to his level, stumbling onto the ground in the process. Without thinking, the boy raised his arms defensively in front of himself, hiding his face behind his knees. If he were to be beaten up, the least that he could do was prevent his parents from finding out. It didn’t matter if the bruises were on his body.  
  
A surprised gasp then erupted from the child when his arms were gently pushed aside moments later. He inhaled sharply when a gloved hand took hold of his chin, thereby forcing him to look directly into the noble’s eyes. The well-dressed man had an amused smile on his face, evidently having realised that the child seated on the floor was trembling in fear.  
  
“Do not worry, child. I am not going to harm you. What is your name, and how old may you be?” he said, and the boy’s eyes widened in surprise. He did not expect that people with high social statuses would speak in such a gentle manner to a mere peasant like him.  
  
“C-Cho Kyuhyun, sir… I’m thir–thirteen this year…” he managed to choke out, still feeling slightly cautious about the man’s intentions.  
  
“You have really good looks, child,” the middle-aged man mused as he scrutinised Kyuhyun’s soot-covered face. He surprised the boy once more when he pulled out a handkerchief from his breast pocket, and started wiping the dirt away. “Pray tell, where might your dwelling be?”  
  
Kyuhyun pointed shakily at the run-down hut in the distance, earning a satisfied smile from the nobleman.  
  
Little did he know that a monster would descend upon his small but comfortable home that night, and dragged him away amidst the strong, metallic stench of blood._

  
.｡.:*☆*:.｡.:*☆*:.｡.

  
He was drying his damp hair with the towel that a servant brought him upon returning to the mansion from the pouring rain, and was about to return to his room when some odd noise made him halt in his steps. A frown creased his forehead as he listened carefully, trying to determine the origin of those sounds.  
  
He then laid his eyes on a partially-opened door. The door which led to a room that he hadn’t set foot in for the past week.  
He hesitated for a moment, before quietly inching towards the gap.  
  
His eyes widened at the sight that greeted him. There, seated on the four-poster bed, was a frail sight that he had never expected to see, never knew existed. The young man was curled up in a ball, one hand clutching a yellowed photograph, and the other grasping helplessly at the sheets beneath him.  
  
But the most heart-wrenching sight would be that of Kyuhyun sobbing profusely on the bed. The sound of the rain lashing at the windows weighed down upon his heart even more.  
  
Pushing the last of his hesitancy to the back of his mind, he gulped and pushed the door open, letting himself into the room. Kyuhyun shot up in his bed the moment he heard the hinges creaking in protest, before furiously wiping at his tear-stained cheeks.  
  
“What are you doing here? You are not welcomed in this room, Sungmin hyung,” he snarled, quickly returning the photograph he was holding into the drawer. He also ignored the fact that the older man was walking around shirtless in the house.  
  
“I’m sorry, Kyuhyun… I did not mean to intrude, but I saw you–”  
  
“ _Don’t_  even go there, hyung,” Kyuhyun hissed again, seething with rage. He was never a person who liked to have others see the vulnerable side of him. He had allowed that to happen once, but had since vowed to never let that occur again. Not in this lifetime.  
  
Sungmin frowned at Kyuhyun’s hostility. He didn’t know why, but he truly felt the need to care about the younger man. There was something in Kyuhyun that called out to him; something that told him to push on despite Kyuhyun’s resistance. It was as though Kyuhyun craved for someone’s embrace deep within, although he was pushing everyone else away on the surface.  
  
He knew he had to take the chance.  
  
“Kyuhyun…” he began, locking the door behind him before walking towards the taller man. “I have no idea what had happened to you, but this is not the way to solve things. If there is something bothering you inside, I would gladly listen.”  
  
“Then what? Judge me? Ridicule my words? Laugh at me? I do not need fake sympathy, hyung,” Kyuhyun growled, words dripping with acid.  
  
Something in Sungmin snapped at the sound of Kyuhyun’s comments. He hated that he was being perceived as feigning his concern for the younger man. His feelings were anything but that.  
  
“Why do you always shut yourself in your own world?! Why can you not allow others to help you, to reach out to you? Is there a need to think that everyone is trying to be nice to you just because they have ulterior motives?!” Sungmin shouted over the sound of the thunder that reverberated through the air at that particular moment. Without realising it, he had took several steps forward, to the point that Kyuhyun was cornered at the edge of his bed.  
  
Kyuhyun apparently had not realised that fact, because he gasped in surprise when he took another step backwards, only to find himself falling onto the soft mattress. Before he could even compose himself, however, Sungmin successfully hovered over the younger man, pinning him on the bed with his arms on either side of Kyuhyun’s head.  
  
He sighed when he caught sight of the defiance burning in the younger man’s eyes. The latter definitely wasn’t about to give in just yet. “Despite what you may think, you are  _not_  alone in this world, Kyuhyun,” Sungmin said softly, pressing his forehead against the younger man. “You have me here.”  
  
The anger in Kyuhyun’s eyes was promptly replaced with that of surprise. He was used to others trying to get into his inner world, and strongly persisted with their intentions even after Kyuhyun pushed them away. He did not expect that Sungmin would soften up in the end, and talked to him in a gentle manner. No one else had done this for his sake.  
  
Without thinking, Kyuhyun finally broke down again, allowing the emotions that he was trying so hard to hide from Sungmin to overflow. The older man had successfully nudged his way into his dark world; a forbidden place for the rest of the people around him. The sincerity was clear as daylight in Sungmin’s voice – or at least Kyuhyun hoped that it was not a misinterpretation on his side.  
  
Along with the realisation came a familiar feeling that Kyuhyun had not experienced in years. The next thing he knew, he was already pulling Sungmin closer towards him, melding their mouths together in the privacy of his room.   
  


.｡.:*☆*:.｡.:*☆*:.｡.

  
_“Stop torturing yourself in such a manner!” He pleaded, wrapping his arms possessively, protectively around the younger man. He managed to grab hold of the younger man’s wrist, applying pressure to it so that he could slow down the flow of blood that was gushing out from the wound.  
  
“Leave me alone! I do not need your pity!” he screamed, roughly pushing the other man’s arms away. He tried to escape from the room, but was instead held back once again.  
  
The shorter one of the pair combed his hand through his hair in frustration. “What makes you think that I am pitying you, Kyuhyun?”  
  
“Because you think that I am a pathetic idiot who still hangs on to his parents like my life depended on it. That’s what you were thinking, is it not?” he hissed, barely able to open his eyes as a result of the stinging tears.  
  
“Don’t you _dare _believe that no one in this world cares about you, Kyu!_ I’m _here._ I  _care,” he shot out, grinding his teeth together. Kyuhyun was making things difficult for him. He had been trying to imply his true feelings for the younger man for ages, yet Kyuhyun was unable to pick them up.  
  
“Get out, Hyukjae._ Get out _,” the younger man shouted again, desperately trying to push said person out of his room. In a moment of desperation, he tackled Kyuhyun to the ground, and did the very thing that he had been hesitating to do all this while._  
  


.｡.:*☆*:.｡.:*☆*:.｡.

  
The first instance of him waking up with the older man by his side – naked and under his sheets, no less – nearly caused him to fall off the bed in surprise. However, when he got past the initial confusion, the relief bubbled up within him. He was glad that the man was still with him.  
  
It gave him the reassurance that he was not abandoned by others. He was not alone. The other man had kept his promise.  
  
Sungmin, who wasn’t quite comfortable with the idea that they had actually slept together – it defied the laws of nature, or so he said – eventually gave in after several more tries. It was a taboo of their society, something largely unheard of; yet it felt right to the both of them.  
  
The relationship between them soon developed to the point where the older one between the pair could not even remember when was the last time he had woken up in a room that wasn’t Kyuhyun’s. No one within the household suspected anything, however. They were under the impression that Sungmin and Kyuhyun were just inseparable. No one needed to know what they did behind closed doors.  
  
Sungmin knew that this probably was not the first time that Kyuhyun had indulged in such a relationship, but he didn’t care. He loved caressing the younger man, cradling him in his arms. The feeling of their flushed skins in contact was more than enough to push him over the edge. The kisses gave them a sense of belonging.  
  
They were truly content with what they had. It didn’t matter if they had to be locked up in the mansion, as long as they had the other as company.   
  


.｡.:*☆*:.｡.:*☆*:.｡.

  
He was groggily walking back to his room, having woken up in a bed that wasn’t his yet again, when he noticed that Siwon was leaning against the wall. The taller man, who was already decked in his riding gear, seemed to be waiting for something – someone. Him.  
  
“May I help you, Siwon-sshi?” Sungmin asked good-naturedly, smiling amiably at the man whom he seldom talked to. He had a feeling that Siwon wasn’t too fond of his presence in this very household.  
  
“I do not know what you are trying to do, but it would be kind of you to stay away from Kyuhyun,” Siwon replied. Although his expressions did not reveal anything, Sungmin could sense that Siwon was livid deep within. A tint of jealousy, perhaps.  
  
“Unless you are able to give me a decent reason why I should do so, I’m afraid I will not,” the older man said, feeling slightly perturbed by Siwon’s request.  
  
“You have no idea what he has been through. You might even end up hating him if you found out about his past,” Siwon pointed out quietly, though his stern sights set on Sungmin remained unwavering.  
  
“I will not hate him. I will not allow myself to have a reason to despise him,” Sungmin answered with a frown on his face this time. “I will not be one of those people that he is afraid of; those who judge him for things that have come and gone. Are you one of them, Siwon-sshi?”  
  
Siwon snorted at the accusation thrown at him. “I have been there with him since the beginning. I know everything there is to Kyuhyun.”  
  
“Oh really?” Sungmin countered. “Do you know that he would toss and turn in his sleep, night after night? Do you know about the nightmares that plagued his dreams? Have you any idea about his deepest fears?”  
  
Silence.  
  
“Then we have nothing else to talk about, Siwon-sshi. Have a good day,” the older man bowed curtly, before advancing to his room.  
  
Nevertheless, Siwon hurled another statement at Sungmin just as the door was about to close, voice pleading. One that catapulted the latter into a mental state of disarray.  
  
 _“I certainly hope you would not do the same things Hyukjae did. Do not make the same mistakes as he did.”_  
  
Hyukjae… the name which Sungmin had seen scribbled across the photograph in Kyuhyun’s drawer. The one topic that the younger man would squirm away from whenever he asked about it.  
  
Who is he to Kyuhyun?   
  


.｡.:*☆*:.｡.:*☆*:.｡.

  
_“Hyung, where are you going?” He eyed the older man cautiously as the latter paced back and forth in his room.  
  
“Somewhere. Anywhere,” the other breathed. “Any place but here.”  
  
“Why today? Why now?”  
  
The taller of the two subconsciously flinched when he was met with a glare. “I can’t do this anymore. I will lose my mind if I stay here any longer. I _need _to get out.”  
  
“What about me? Will you not take me along?” he asked, suddenly feeling terrified by the thought that he would be left alone in this hellhole.  
  
He paused in his steps, heaving a weary sigh as he turned around to look at the younger man. “I’m sorry, Kyuhyun. I’m really sorry.”_  
  


.｡.:*☆*:.｡.:*☆*:.｡.

  
“Kyu, is this Hyukjae person one of the occupants in this mansion too? Why have I not seen him around?”  
  
The question found its way out of his throat once again. It was probably the tenth time he had asked the same thing for the past week, but as usual, he wasn’t able to obtain an answer for it. Kyuhyun pretended not to have heard his words yet again.  
  
Several moments of silence, then the sound of a book closing up reverberated through the still air of the room.  
  
“Hyung, let’s leave.”  
  
“Leave? But where will we be going?” Sungmin asked, perplexed. A split second later, the manuscript which he was studying lay abandoned on the coffee table beside the armchair. He straightened in his seat, sensing the seriousness in Kyuhyun’s voice.  
  
“Anywhere,” came the simple but vague reply. “As long as we are far away from this mansion; far away from this cage.”  
  
“I thought you said–”  
  
“– that we might be killed if we tried, yes,” he confirmed, though his expressions remain unchanged.  
  
Kyuhyun knew that the man who had dragged them all the way back to this mansion of his wanted them to stay here for the rest of their lives. He was a short-tempered man who would not tolerate people going against his orders, if the bruises and healed scars on Kyuhyun’s own body were anything to go by.  
  
Sungmin bit his lip, not knowing why he was hesitating in the face of the proposal. Kyuhyun meant a lot to him, that much he knew, but he wasn’t prepared to leave. At least not now. “Does your desire to leave outweigh the risks of us actually carrying out the plan?”  
  
“No. There is a large chance that we may be caught before we even make it out of the gates,” Kyuhyun admitted. It didn’t seem to have affected his decision, however.  
  
The older man sighed. “When will you take off, then?”  
  
“Tonight.”  
  


.｡.:*☆*:.｡.:*☆*:.｡.

  
He sat next to the freshly-dug mound, leaning against the headstone as he glanced at the rain falling from the heavens above. Despite being drenched to the bones, he had not moved an inch since the small ceremony held on this very spot hours ago.  
  
He couldn’t even find the will to stand. Not when the one and only person who would pull him off the ground was no longer here with him.  
  
His fist tightened around the piece of parchment in his hand, not even caring that his untrimmed nails were digging into the flesh of his palm. Blood was drawn from the imprints, but he felt indifferent even to the stinging pain as the rain water ran into the wounds.  
  
All he could feel was numbness, both as a result of the rain, and his mental state. He had completely lost the will to move on, to speak, to respond to others.  
  
 _You lied to me. You said you would not leave me alone._  
  
Twelve simple words, yet it reverberated through his entire being. It was his fault that the person he claimed to care so much wrote such words to him. Guilt. Regret. Cowardice. Three other words that wouldn’t stop haunting him because of his actions – or rather, lack of action.  
  
He glanced to the side when the sound of a pair of boots walking through the damp grass reached his ears, only to find the very person he didn’t want to talk to. He was afraid of hearing what the other man wanted to say.  
  
Nevertheless, it didn’t seem as though the man intended to keep whatever was on his mind to himself. “I did warn you beforehand, Sungmin hyung,” Siwon muttered quietly, gaze trained on the other man.  
  
“Did… did this happen to him before?” he gulped, hoping desperately that the opposite was true.  
  
“He did not talk about Hyukjae at all, did he?” Siwon asked. Sungmin shook his head in response, lips pressed into a thin line. Somehow, he dreaded the next sentence that would leave the man’s mouth.  
  
“It is a reversal of situations, that much I can tell you. Now I can only pray for you not to walk down the same path as they did,” the younger man said again, squeezing Sungmin lightly on the shoulder before walking away.  
  
Sungmin gulped again as he looked at Siwon’s retreating back, still trying to compose himself. Regardless whether he really wanted to cry his heart out, he could not. It was no one’s fault but his own.  
  
For the first time in his life, he realised just how hard it was to even draw a single breath.


End file.
